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'05, 530i Reeled me in yesterday...(long)

Cruising on interstate 89 I happened upon a 2005 530i. As I approached, the driver stepped up the pace so I went along for the ride. Around a big sweeper at the base of a mile long hill near Montpelier, about 80% grade, I dropped to 4th and passed. I could see him react as I went by and managed to get about 15-20 car lengths ahead. In 4th up to readline then 5th, to the floor. Then, he started creeping up on me. I panicked and went back to 4th... I was already well into the redline, back to 5th....135mph on the dial. One eye on the tac/speedo and the other in the rearview. He's still gaining, reeling me in. We were coming up behind another car as we crested the hill, so I let off a little and changed lanes. By then he was just 5 car lengths behind and then peeled off at the exit a the top of the hill. Man, this is first time I've almost been manhandled by another vehicle with the M5. GUYS, where can I get a little more horsepower for the next hill climb/street fight? This whole thing made me a little quezey. But better another beemer than some other 'thing'.....

Hill started off shallow, then real steep....

This is one of those hills where there's a sign warning trucks to use a lower gear (in the north bound lane at the top).

My car is pretty much stock as far as the engine is concerned. I'm wondering if I chipped it I'd get some advantage. I keep reading stuff where the results of some dyno test with a chip shows little difference. Blowers and turbos blow head gaskets... stroking it would kill me financially.

The car was pulling pretty strong but that 530i, once it spooled up, was pulling better. I've smoked many a punk with the backward ball cap in a rice rocket, and some big American iron too. I thought I'd at least hold this guy off.... Is it time for a newer M3????

Aerodynamics

You can't do much about those. The new 5 series has a much better cd than most things on the road (it's one of the reasons why the new m5 pulls on the e55 past whatever speed).

The e60 drag coeffcient is .29 from a roadfly search, where as ours is .37, good luck beating an e60 in a top speed contest. Heck, it's REALLY hard to beat the e60 m5, the ford gt and carrera gt barely beat it.

I'm thinking you'll lose in 5th to nearly anything with 80% of our power or more.

Re: Hill started off shallow, then real steep....

Okay I dyno the car with out the chip at edge motor works on a cold raining day and then after one run installed a new JC chip. I gained 23.5 hp at the rear world, without tweaking the car. The car runs and idles so much smoother. For 249 bucks, what do you have to lose....except to that new 530i.

Why would I want to Apologize....

to an arrogant, nit-picky piss-ant like you, Bruce? Everyone else on this forum has good things to say to just about anyone who posts something out here. Yet you cannot help but find fault with EVERYTHING posted. Go ahead, take a look at your posts. You're a jerk and everyone knows it. It's classic, you step on everyone else to make yourself feel big. What a looser.....
Oh, and don't bother responding, I won't read it.

Bimmer that is... I never call people names either

BMW spent a lot of $ and time building that 3.0L

and it's worked out for them in a lot of ways. I read a great article in one of their quarterly mags that had some neato cut-away views of the interior of that powerplant. If you think they had their straight sixes down in the '80's, you gotta see the power they're getting out of these new completely variable timing 3-litres. I'm impressed!

At any rate, the best bang for your buck is in a ECU upgrade via Chip. Next is the cam-gear & chip combo. Then, to varying levels of success, (and money spent) you have exhaust systems, body-kits that lower you... etc.
Given your lack of big money to spend, you're firmly in chip country if you ask me.

One more thing, don't let anyone know when your M5 is whooped! Just let off the gas real easy, and give the impression that you have 'em beat and you wanna let 'em save face. (That's what I did when I realized I was next to a supercharged Honda! I had 'im off the line, and everytime we both hit the gas at the same time, but he would pull away above 100.)

Umm.. Not so sure about the chip and power gains

From what I’ve read chips do help drivability and some add Hp. However they do not perform as the manufacture claims regarding HP gains. It appears a combination is the best bet. This combination to me appears to includes
1) Chip
2) Cams
3) Cam gears

Some people quote headers as a great mod. This mod appears to be quite expensive with limited results for a stock engine. However if you increase the flow (cams + Track pipe) you can gain some. However it appears that a MAF is the kicker to real gains.

A chip helps drivability with maybe nominal overall HP gains. There are a bunch of threads on this issue you can search the database for. This is a combined link of some of the threads by the respected posters on this board.

This has and will be a continued debate I am sure. Either way you will probably like the results for “seat of the pants” feel of a chip, that seems to be the common feeling. However you may be disappointed on a dyno..